


G is for Gravitational Time Dilation and the Consequences of Special Relativity

by splash_the_cat



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Angst and Humor, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-03
Updated: 2015-03-03
Packaged: 2018-03-16 04:10:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3473933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/splash_the_cat/pseuds/splash_the_cat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AKA stoics doing emotional H/C.  "Unending" episode tag.</p><p>"Hello, O'Neill."  Teal'c took it and twisted off the cap, taking a polite sip before setting it near his feet.  Jack did the same, and leaned back to enjoy the last of the day's heat.  After about fifteen minutes of silence, Jack glanced over at Teal'c.  It was weird, seeing him aged, not just in body with the white at his temples and the fine lines around his eyes, but there was something else, too.   An intangible bow to his back.  A weight that even Bra'tac had never shown. </p><p>Jack picked up his beer and drained the rest of the bottle in one long pull.  "So, you staying for dinner?"</p><p>Something that might have been a smile tugged at the corner of Teal'c's mouth.  "Indeed."</p>
            </blockquote>





	G is for Gravitational Time Dilation and the Consequences of Special Relativity

The strange car parked neatly off the cabin's main driveway had rental plates. Jack pulled his truck up past it, into his usual spot, and gathered his groceries from the back before going to investigate. Nothing identifying was visible through the windows, and nobody stood on the porch waiting for him, so Jack headed around to the back door. 

One of the cluster of chairs on the dock was occupied. 

Jack let the back door slam shut behind him, though he was certain his visitor already knew he'd arrived. He stowed his groceries and grabbed two beers from the fridge and made his way out to the dock. 

Teal'c said nothing until Jack was standing right next to him. "You have increased the size of the platform."

Jack looked down at the fresh wood planks. He kind of missed how it no longer creaked alarmingly with every step. "Yeah, well, all these people keep showing up to sit out here. Had to make some extra room." Jack settled into the other chair and held out the bottle. "Hey."

"Hello, O'Neill." Teal'c took it and twisted off the cap, taking a polite sip before setting it near his feet. Jack did the same and leaned back to enjoy the last of the day's heat. After about fifteen minutes of silence, Jack glanced over at Teal'c. It was weird, seeing him aged, not just in body with the white at his temples and the fine lines around his eyes, but there was something else, too. An intangible bow to his back. A weight that even Bra'tac had never shown. 

Jack picked up his beer and drained the rest of the bottle in one long pull. "So, you staying for dinner?"

Something that might have been a smile tugged at the corner of Teal'c's mouth. "Indeed."

*****

Teal'c was already in the kitchen the next morning, neatly flipping pancakes on the ancient griddle. 

"Sleep okay?" Jack had offered Teal'c use of the spare room after dinner the night before, and Teal'c had accepted with a single nod, then they'd gone back to watching a crappily-edited network showing of "Die Hard." Until Teal'c suddenly stood, said, "I believe I will sleep now," and vanished, leaving Jack alone with John McClane shouting "Yippe Ki Yay brother flubber!"

"I did, thank you." Teal'c flipped three pancakes onto a plate with one scoop and slid the plate across the table to Jack.

"Show off." 

Teal'c answered that by handing him the syrup. Jack dug in, pausing when Teal'c set down his own plate, but he seemed more interested in food than talk, so Jack obliged. The pancakes were really good, and, well, Jack wasn't sure what exactly Teal'c was here looking for, or where he should even start the conversation. And Jack wasn't exactly sure he wanted to know, not if it was about the time bubble thing, the little Jiminy Cricket voice in his head that always sounded suspiciously like Daniel pointed out. 

Clearly the best response was to just ask Teal'c for more pancakes.

Later, out on the dock, after each had been settled in silence for a few hours with a fishing pole, and had worked their way through a few beers stuck in a tub of ice, Jack said, "I got a pretty nice sports package with the new satellite dish, and there's a Ducks game on tonight. You up for it?"

"I am always prepared to honor the battles fought by the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, O'Neill."

**** 

"I fear you will not be able to achieve par on this hole, O'Neill."

From down in the sand trap, Jack shoved the brim of his cap up enough to make sure Teal'c could see his glare. "Not helping, T. Not helping."

Jack should have known better when he'd suggested the next morning they put in a few rounds at the course in town. Teal'c was a golfing savant, and routinely creamed Jack whenever they played. Still, he was glad to see some of the big guy's smug resurface. Not that Teal'c didn't have strong and silent down like a pro, but this wasn't Teal'c's usual balanced stillness. This was some weirdly awkward and restrained silence, like he was fighting to maintain the calm Jack had always assumed was just part of his DNA.

As Jack took the swing and cut the ball out of the trap in a shower of white sand, he realized that he was happy to see even that tiny sign of _his_ Teal'c, not the familiar stranger who had returned from the Odyessy, this man Jack could only think of now as enigmatic, where once he had been just steadfast.

As Jack climbed out of the trap to see his ball just on the outside edge of the green, on a terrible lie, he admitted he probably also was being really crappy friend about all this.

*******

The next morning Jack sat down to another plate of perfectly golden-brown pancakes, already placed on the table, and said, "Not that I'm complaining about the company, T., but..." His implied question sank into silence, and he was about to call a relieved escape from the potential conversation and head them out to fish when Teal'c suddenly said:

"I find it fascinating that time and space are so incontrovertibly linked. That events which impact one part of that continuum have significant effects upon the other. Despite all my years traveling through this intertwined continuum, I did not clearly see that until it was too late."

Jack blinked. "You sound like Carter."

"Samantha Carter was of great help in firming my understanding of the intricacies of our temporal predicament."

And man, did that weird Jack out the most, the way Teal'c talked about the team now, a familiarity, an _intimacy_ that Jack hadn't ever heard from him through all the last ten years of their lives together. "So you came out here all this way to talk nerdy to me, huh?" 

The quiet, broken, "I came to... I..." was like a punch to the gut. Teal'c stood at the stove, shoulders hunched, hands curled into tight fists at his sides.

Time to man up, Jack. "Teal'c?" he said softly. "Talk to me."

It was like watching a spool unwind, the tension bleeding away from Teal'c frame inch by inch, leaving him looking exhausted. "I hoped your company would be unobjectionable."

"Uh, wow. Thanks, buddy. You know how to make a guy feel loved."

That got him an eyebrow, but Teal'c sat down at the table and folded his hands. "It is an inelegant phrasing, but kindly meant. Sometimes the others... they are difficult to bear, though no fault of their own. They do not know themselves anymore, not as I did. It... is confusing, sometimes."

Jack made a show of shoveling in a bite of pancake, his sudden emotional bravado failing him. "I know I missed a lot, stuck here." Which sounded terribly petulant, the minute the words were out there. 

Teal'c either understood or ignored it, because he only said, "As Samantha Carter would remind you, there is no absolute frame of reference in the study of the physical laws of the universe."

"Okay, Einstein. I get it. Don't tell Carter, but I spend a lot of time on Wikipedia."

Never one to let Jack completely off the hook, Teal'c said, "You are still the you I remember, O'Neill, and for that I am profoundly grateful." 

Jack stared down at the remains of his breakfast, so he would not have to see the sheen in Teal'c eyes. "Yeah."

"I have long been aware that I would outlive all of you. And I had made my peace with that. But to do so essentially twice..."

Suddenly unable to swallow past the lump in his throat, Jack choked out, "As we have learned, time travel sucks."

"It is not precisely time travel, O'Neill."

Jack finally looked back up, and there, yeah, there was the Teal'c he remembered. "Really, you're going to be pedantic about this?"

"I do not wish to disappoint you." There was humor there, but even so, Jack knew the conversational turn for what it was: deflection. This, at least, he knew how to deal with.

"What will disappoint me is if you drink all my beer and beat me at golf. I demand a rematch." Jack shoved back from the table and gestured toward the door. "I expect your pedantic butt in the car in 20. Loser refills my beer fridge and cleans the kitchen. And Teal'c, I will defend my honor, no matter how long it takes. Days. Weeks, if necessary." He pointed at Teal'c as he turned to go down the hall to the bathroom. "Got it?"

Teal'c cocked his head to the side, regarding Jack for an uncomfortably long moment, and said with unbearably naked relief, "I believe I that I do, O'Neill."


End file.
